Oct 24- Thermo Fisher Scientific raised its full-year forecast for the second time this year as the world's largest laboratory equipment maker benefited from its presence in Asia, even as the weak U.S. and European economies dragged on its competitors.

Analyst Sung Ji Nam said that for now, the major sources of growth for companies including Illumina Inc. and Life Technologies Corp. will be sales of new, more advanced gene-sequencing products and disposable items used in testing, and their biggest clients will remain academic and clinical customers.

Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results before the opening bell on Wednesday, February 3. Here is a look at how Pfizer shares traded during the most recent earnings reports.

It has been over a month and a half since the US House of Representatives passed its version of health care reform and today, the Senate passed its bill. Now the two bills must be reconciled and the debate will continue to heat up. Here are the biggest S&P Health Care gainers and losers over the past 6 months.

This weekend, the US House of Representatives passed its version of health care reform and now awaits a version from the Senate. The debate has been heating up since earlier this summer when President Obama was pushing for legislation before the summer recess. Here are the biggest S&P Health Care gainers and losers over while the debate has waged on.

Cash flow is a great valuation metric to look at when calculating how solid a company may be, said Lee Eugene Munson, CIO of Portfolio Asset Management, and Michael Farr, president of Farr, Miller & Washington. They shared their best 5 stock picks with investors.

One large options trader is buying calls in Waters Corporation, which manufactures and sells lab equipment for chemical analysis. WAT's options volume for the last month averages 552 contracts a day, but yesterday (Tuesday) more than 4,000 of the March 40 calls alone were bought by mid-afternoon...